


Basiate

by SisterPuce



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Arby's fast food, Blood Drinking?, Homosexuality, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Link to a mixtape, M/M, Male Slash, Title Subject to Change, meant to be taken seriously, reasonably simplistic writing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-01 23:25:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SisterPuce/pseuds/SisterPuce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry Parrish was just settling back into a reasonably normal life. He certainly didn't expect to run into Noah Cook (literally). Soon, a romance blooms.</p><p>Takes place in 1998!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The original character Noah cook would be played by Lance Reddick 'cuz that's just right  
> If you can take the time, Please R&R. It would make my day.
> 
> Here's a link to music for this fic http://8tracks.com/colubridcola/is-it-any-wonder-i-can-t-sleep

**A** ntirrhinum majus, the snapdragon. One of Henry's favorite flowers, even though he was more of a perennial kind of guy he thought as he stocked the stands.

He had taken the rare job at a nursery and garden center as he made his home in Hastings, Nebraska for a short time. Not paying much attention, he placed one of the plants too close to the edge of the shelf and it fell to the ground, scattering cheap potting soil across the linoleum and Henry's boat shoes. Swearing under his breath, he consciously blamed the mistake on the screwed-up depth perception of his specks. He gingerly removed them and cleaned the particles of perlite that clung to his lenses while walking to get a broom and dustpan, and as he rounded a corner, Henry collided with one of the men who had been hauling mulch in just an aisle away.

It couldn't be helped. The collision with the stranger sent Henry into another vision, flooding his eyes with black and making him drop his glasses to the floor.

_Two men, one on top of the other as they lay amongst linen sheets. One is the stranger, much younger. They writhe in love, whispering sweet nothings. Suddenly, a door swung open and flooded the room with light._

Henry blinked away the darkness of his eyes and quickly scrambled for his glasses. When he put them back on, he was met by the stranger's frightened face. Both of them were speechless. Henry's face was rather flush, though. But before he could say anything, the stranger decided to briskly walk away. Henry was beside himself. He felt overwhelming guilt from the encounter.

* * *

Three weeks passed until he saw the man again. He was on his lunch break and just looked up in time to see those eyes staring back at him with the same fear. That was it. Henry had to speak to him.

"Hey!" Henry said, panting, "Hey, stop! We have to talk!"

"I don't have anything to talk about," said the very tall stranger.

"Yes, we do." Henry finally caught up and stood in front of him,"We both know what happened."

"Nothing happened."

Parrish chuckled nervously, "Cooperate with me. My name is Henry Parrish."

The other man reluctantly shook Henry's outstretched hand and replied: "Noah Cook."

"Noah," Parrish repeated softly and wrung his hands. "We should speak somewhere more private."

* * *

Somehow, Henry managed to convince Cook to join him for a cup of coffee at the local diner. They were silent for a long time until Henry broke the ice in a hushed voice.

"I saw what burdens your heart."

"What?" Cook questioned disdainfully.

"You and your young lover. You were found out, yes?"

There was a further silence. Henry was met with incredulity in Cook's wide-open eyes.

"Yes," Henry answered for Noah and lit a cigarette. "Have you ever heard of a Sin-Eater?"

"No." "That's me. I eat sins."

"That's it." Noah slaps his palms down on the formica and makes to scoot out of the booth before Parrish grabs a fistful of his T-shirt to stop him. Noah felt something stir in his chest as he saw Henry's eyes blink into black, again.

"It was your father who caught you," Henry said softly. He saw Noah's father beating him with a belt. Saw Noah watching his father preach to a crowd as he sat in the pews. And he felt the man's soul-aching guilt for having slept with another man. His father had made him believe that pure love was a sin.

Noah sat back down, rubbed his face. When Henry came to, he said nothing but scribbled his address onto a napkin.

"If you don't believe me, come to my place and I will sanctify you."

* * *

Looking up from his copy of the collective works of Flannery O' Conner, Henry heard scuffling outside in the hall. Before he could return to his book, there was a knock at the door. His heart began to pound dully. It had been a couple of days since he spoke to Noah at the diner. Henry looked out the peephole to see him, so he unlocked the door, book in his arm. Noah sniffled a bit and looked cold, awkwardly pulling on the lapels of his leather motorcycle jacket. Henry Merely gestured for him to enter.

Henry's apartment was small and sort of cramped, and it smelled as if he had been cooking.

Noah nodded and stepped in. Asking him to sit, Henry went and poured Noah a glass of whisky and one for himself. Why was Parrish going out of his way to help this man? It was usually society-that came to him. He couldn't deny that he felt some strange connection with Noah.

Without a word, Parrish picked up a loaf of bread from the kitchen counter and his knife.

"What are you doing?" Noah asked.

"You're not Hemophobic, are you?"

"What?"

Henry cut his own hand, wincing, and held it up for Noah to see. This got an less-than-positive look from the man, who thought seriously about leaving in that moment. All Parrish did was smile warmly and sat with the man he already considered his friend.

"Give me your hand."

"No thanks," Cook laughed, thinking the whole thing was insane.

"Shush. I've done this hundreds of times, Noah. Blood is the gate that I must open in order to get to your sins."

Noah scrutinized the knife, which look rather old and filthy, and thought of blood poisoning but he was so desperate to feel absolution that he opened his palm but not before saying: "Look, why should I believe you? Only God can forgive my sins."

"And yet you have found no peace of mind," Henry said and took the man's hand.

"Just stay still." He cut a small slit along Noah's upturned palm and let the blood rise from the wound. Noah thought the whole thing was crazy enough as it was but things got even weirder when Henry actually dabbed his fingers in the blood and sucked it off of them. Noah jerked his hand back, not entirely sure if the man before him wasn't some kind of pervert. On the third time seeing Henry's eyes turn dark, he started to wonder if he wasn't evil.

"Who was the boy. The one you loved?"

"Jessie Stoker. He moved away a few years ago and I haven't heard from him since. For all I know he may be dead."

Henry took Noah's hands in his own and inhaled. "Think of him as hard as you can."

"Why?"

"Close your eyes.Just do as I say!"

Perturbed, Cook reluctantly did as he was told. He couldn't believe it but he could actually feel his ex-lover's presence.

"Now, open them."

What Noah saw made him nearly jump off of the couch. Jessie was there, right in front of him, smiling with eyes full of a lost love.

"What the hell?!"

"Baby, what we did...wasn't a sin," Jessie said and clasped Noah's hands again. He felt cold and he hadn't aged a day since that night.

"It was love."

"God, I missed you Jess..."

"Don't be your Dad. Do not keep beating yourself up over this," Jessie said, reaching out to touch Noah's cheek, leaning in for a kiss. He tasted as sweet as Cook remembered. And for reasons he couldn't comprehend, all self-reproach just melted away. His whole body felt lighter and kissing Jessie never felt more right.

Noah became more passionate and pulled on Jessie's clothes, untucking his white shirt and running his fingers over his torso but Jessie just clung to him. Something was wrong. Jessie's body suddenly felt larger. He tasted different. and when Noah opened his eyes, Henry looked back. He was immediately pushed away.

"Get offa me!" cried Noah.

Henry tried to recover and pushed his misted glasses back up his hawk nose. "Excuse me, but it was you who was kissing me."

"What the hell are you?!"

"I told you. I consume sins... or in your case, perceived sins." Noah couldn't deny it. His mind and soul felt at ease for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. A lifetime of tyranny. Henry downed his whisky in one gulp and tried to compose himself as Noah rose and paced the room.


	2. Chapter 2

It came as a surprise when, out of nowhere, Cook tapped Parrish on the shoulder and scared him out of his socks.

Cook couldn't help but smile. "Hey, I'm sorry."

"Oh, Noah!" Henry laughed. He was just finishing up his shift at the Garden Center and was pleased to see the younger man.

"What brings you here?"

"I was just passing through and thought I'd drop in to see if you wanted to grab a bite to eat." This was entirely a lie. He'd actually drove over just to see if Henry was there.

"Sure. You caught me just in time," Henry said.

He couldn't help but wonder what Cook wanted, but he wasn't complaining and he was sort of nervous to be around him. There hadn't been a day gone by since he'd last seen him that he didn't think about what had went down. Henry had never been very lucky in the romance department, as one may imagine with his "gift". Human contact had never been too big with him, but there had been a few girls in his past.

They agreed to meet up at the new Arby's restaurant and went on their separate ways.

They ordered two small orders of curly fries and spread them over some napkins in the middle of the table with some ketchup and a couple or cokes. Noah's was diet.

"So, how are you?" Henry asked in between bites.

"How am I? Man, I've never felt better! What you have, what you do... It's amazing."

Henry sighed and shoveled in some more fries. "It's not amazing. I've done it hundreds of times."

Noah shakes his head. "But you can just reach into somebody's soul and make it clean. How can that not be a gift?"

"Once again, I eat sins. I take them into myself in order to santify the previous transgressor's soul. Once I take a sin, it is as if I had committed the act, myself," Henry said, shrewdly with some irritation, not looking at his companion. He had explained what he was to many people before Noah.

"Okay, but that means you feel the guilt that you took from me..."

"No. You didn't commit a sin. I just helped you realize that."

"But I'm not wrong, am I? You do carry the sins of other people like they were your own."

"...Yes," Henry answered softly.

He didn't want to talk about it and Noah didn't know how to take that. He extended his hand and put it on Henry's, making Henry blush. It was incredibly endearing to Noah.

Flustered, Henry hid his hand under the table and cleared his throat. Before Parrish could return to his Toyota Camry in the parking lot, Noah called to him.

"Wait a minute!"

"Hm?" Henry waited for him to approach.

"When can I see you again?" Noah asked.

Henry thought that sounded like something a person would say if they were dating and they weren't dating... were they? "I-I don't know. You know where I live. Where I work--"

"--we need to talk about what happened."

"I thought we already did," Henry snickered a little.

"You know what I mean."

"This isn't the place," Henry stated, looking to the old couple sitting in the car behind them. The truth was, he really did like Noah but he was debating with himself. For years, he never even considered a relationship. Being alone was just normal for him and he hadn't ever really had a steady girlfriend. He never even kissed a man, for that matter. Well, until Noah came along.


End file.
